For Immediate Release Media Contact: Pam Jones or Marjorie Beenders
September 18, 2009 Phone: 573-636-8282 « Email: pam@tbmg.net
Apple Festivals Have Special A-Peel
at Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks
Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. –Coming in October, two fun family festivals are all about apples at Central Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. The 30th annual Old Tyme Apple Festival will be held in Versailles, Saturday, Oct. 3, and the 13th annual Apple Butter Days Fall Festival will take place in Linn Creek, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10.
Named the best festival in Central Missouri for several years by the readers of Rural Missouri, the Old Tyme Apple Festival typically draws more than 30,000 visitors to Versailles. “The festival has a lot to offer and the price is right—free!” explains festival chairperson and Versailles Chamber of Commerce President Jim Dykzeul.
In honor of its milestone anniversary, the festival’s theme will be “The Big Apple.” Dykzeul says, “We decided to go back to our roots, that is, the apple. We’ve invited apple growers, apple artists, and basically anyone and anything related to apples to participate in the festival this year.”
Apple artists and artisans throughout Missouri have been asked to build three-dimensional apple sculptures up to six-feet by six-feet in a variety of weatherproof materials. “We plan to showcase these apple sculptures throughout the community,” Dykzeul says.
The beloved musical “Annie” will kick off the festivities at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24 through Saturday, Sept. 26, at the historic Royal Theatre, with follow-up performances Friday, Oct. 2 and Saturday, Oct. 3. Also on Friday, Oct. 2, the Apple Bash Sock Hop and Car Cruise will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Sonic Drive-In. The festival King and Queen will be crowned at 5:30 p.m. at the County Courthouse; the First Baptist Church will be the site of the Baby Dumpling and Apple Dumplin and Darlin’ contests, starting at 6:30 p.m. And the annual apple pie-baking contest will begin at 5:30 p.m. with winners announced at noon Saturday, followed by the spirited apple pie auction.
A hearty pancake breakfast starting at 6:30 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church will jumpstart Saturday’s events. The 5K, Super Senior 5K Runs, 2-Mile Walk and new Half-Mile Kids Fun Run will get going at 7 a.m. at Versailles High School. At 9 a.m., the Kids Fun Zone will open on North Monroe Street, the Tractor & Engine Display will open on Newton Street and hundreds of crafts and food booths will open for business downtown--look for folks strolling along with kettle corn, funnel cakes, turkey drumsticks and roasted corn on the cob as well as apple goodies galore.
The heart of the festival, the annual parade, will take off from Brown Road at Hwy. 52 at 10 a.m. and wind its way through downtown Versailles. With dozens of floats, plus clowns, bands, horses, classic cars and more, the parade typically lasts about one and a half hours. Dykzeul says. “It’s always a great parade, with outstanding music provided by area high school bands.” After building an appetite watching the parade, visitors may indulge at the traditional German dinner at 11 a.m. at Grace Lutheran Church.
The music will play all day, with country, gospel and blues at the amphitheatre stage. Featured performers will be the Warrensburg-based rhythm and blues band, the fantastic Nace Brothers, who have toured with Jimmy Buffet, Todd Snider, Merle Haggard and Brian Setzer among others.
Other festival activities on Saturday will include a car show sponsored by the Big Boys Toys Car Club at Versailles City Park, featuring 35 classes of cars, trucks and motorcycles, with awards presented at 4 p.m.; discount tours of the fascinating Morgan County Historical Society Museum, 12-4 p.m.; and a juried quilt show Saturday, Oct. 3 at Hunter Civic Center, 12-5 p.m. Shuttles will provide transportation from parking lots to festival event sites for just $1 for all day.
Saturday’s grand finale will be a compact-car Figure 8 race and “tuff” truck challenge, both offering cash prizes, at 7 p.m. Saturday, at the Morgan County Fairgrounds, sponsored by the Versailles Lions Club. A 3-Person Scramble Golf Tournament at Rolling Hills Country Club will wrap up the weekend, starting at noon on Sunday. “It’s also homecoming weekend for the Versailles Tigers football team, so that will add a lot of extra excitement around here,” Dykzeul notes. “There’s just no way you won’t have a great time at our wonderful Old Tyme Apple Festival.”
The following Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10, several hundred visitors will be expected at the 13th annual Apple Butter Days Fall Festival. The free event will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Camden County Museum, located on V Road just off Highway 54 in Linn Creek.
Apple butter is the focus of this charming festival, featuring dedicated volunteers—and visitors—stirring simmering apples and sugar in a big copper kettle. The arduous process, from apple tree to jar (or pie), usually requires up to a dozen bushels of apples, says Daphne Jeffries, president of the Camden County Historical Society. A pint of this delectable apple butter will sell for $5. Sugar-free apple butter also will be available, as well as fresh-baked or frozen apple pies (including some sugar-free).
New this year, Historical Society volunteers will be posted in each room of the fascinating museum—a former school built in 1930--to answer visitors’ questions. Chili and home-made soup plus corn bread and dessert will be served, and other food booths will offer an array of seasonal goodies. Autumn and holiday decorations, crocheted and knitted items and more also will be available. Two beautiful handmade quilts, donated by friends of the Historical Society, will be raffled at 4 p.m. Saturday. All proceeds will go toward the upkeep of the unique Camden County Museum.
For more details about the Old Tyme Apple Festival in Versailles or the Apple Butter Days Fall Festival in Linn Creek—as well as more information about lodging, dining, shopping and attractions at the Lake of the Ozarks-- please call the Lake of the Ozarks Convention & Visitors Bureau at (800) FUN-LAKE or visit www.funlake.com.
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